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Last night I went for a drive, and I'll be honest, we got the car up to about 95 when we hit a rabbit, then at 105mph, we had to break hard because there was a dip in the road. As soon as I tried to accelerate after the dip, my heart sunk. The engine would knock every time I tried to do so. I immediately stopped the car, put it into neutral, and pressed the accelerator only to hear the noise continue. We were at least 3mi from my house and it was almost midnight, so I babied the poor bitch home at 10-15mph in 2nd gear because at that engine speed the knock was not audible. Maybe that was really stupid, but that was the only option we had at the time.
The damn car had 73k mi on it when I bought it, and now it only has 97k; this doesn't make sense to me, though. I know I beat on it more than I should, but there's always good oil (Right now there's part synthetic Castrol GTX I believe) and I changed it every 3k-3500 miles religiously. At this point, I believe there was only about 1000 miles since the oil was changed, and the oil level has never been low (If anything, it's usually a little high), right now the dipstick reads right at/below the top marker. The car's temp gauge read normal operating temp like it always has. The only time I've ever seen it move after it warmed up is every once in a while it will cool down a bit. The coolant level is the same as it has been for about a year. This doesn't make sense to me, I may not have babied it when I drove it, but I never neglected it as far as maintenance, and it seems like this only ever happens to our cars when people drive them without oil for an extended time. Anyone have any idea why this happened??

 
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You hit a rabbit at 95mph which probably busted something loose. Did you inspect the underside of the engine/tranny?

 
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Would probably cause a EFFIN HUGE problem.

 
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I haven't yet, but I disconnected the spark plug wires one at a time and the knock went away when I unplugged the wire for the cylinder on the right end hy the crank, the knock went away. Could it be anything else with that information in mind?

 
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Could be valve(s) or rings. You were pushing it pretty hard at 105mph. You're right at the threshold of breakdown at that speed with the D17.

 
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Considering the knock went away when you unplugged the coil to the #1 cylinder I would suspect it is a rod bearing.

It happens, these engines are made to be as efficient as possible, not to race. 6k RPM for 1-2 seconds on a hard acceleration isn't an issue, 6k rpm's for a minute is. It shouldn't happen on a perfect motor but yours has 100k on it.

 
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ok, thanks. I've read a lot of people saying the bottom end of the engine should be rebuilt. Is this 100% necessary or will it likely be reliable if I just replace the bearing?

Is it possible that I did irreversible damage by babying it home in this condition?

 
Rep Power: 192

If there is damage most of it was probably caused when the bearing failed at high load/rpm. The main problem would be damage done to the crankshaft.

You could just replace the bearing but if there is damage to the crankshaft the new bearing would fail quickly.

You would probably be better off getting a new motor with low miles, D17's are cheap.

 
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Drain the oil, see what it looks like.

 
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will do, the dipstick won't work though?

 
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Checked the dipstick, nice golden color like it always was, and then I drained about a half cup into a glass measuring cup, the car has been sitting for about a day, and it was completely dark brown. Can't see through it. And the best part is when you shine a flashlight into it, there's very fine glitter, which I assume is ground-up engine guts. This freaking sucks.

On the plus side, I can get a used engine with 54k on it, installed, for $1100 and a 3-mo guarantee. Is that a good price?

 
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Not bad at all

 
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Ok, well my uncle is going to take a look at it and decide if that's the route we need to go. It kinda sucks though, cause that 1100 is coming out of the $ I have saved for college, which I'm starting this semester. Hopefully after this engine I don't have anymore problems with this car. It has proven a lot less reliable than I had hoped it would be.

Thanks all for the help, I really appreciate it. Can anyone tell me if this is something that could have been inevitable, that would have happened eventually anyway had I not decided to be stupid and take the car to 105 that night, or is this solely because I did this one time? I dunno. I still think there has to be more to this story since before I bought the car.

 
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That "glitter" is pieces of the bearing. You must of lost oil pressure somehow..

Engine is probably toast, may be crankshaft damage.

On a rare occasion you could get away with new bearings..I dont know.

 
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The car is designed to be an econobox grocery getter.
They don't tolerate abuse well at all.

 
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Ok, so this engine I'd like to get installed, it's from some place in rancho Cordova CA, which is 5 hours away, I've never heard of the place before in my life, and I can't find a review for it anywhere online.anyone have any advice, anything I should look for or request before we trailer the car over there, and while I'm there, is there anything else I should look for or ask them about? Is it unreasonable to believe they could be lying about the mileage? Or pretty much anything they want to lie about? If there's a 3 month guarantee, should I be worried about the quality of workmanship as far as installation?

 
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Ok so I did some searching around and found this video [autostream]http://autostream.com/ibcivicforums/?page_type=firebirdplayerthumbnail&framepage=857&t ransactionid=1342375132-9625120087&posted_by=stewartfan_www.civicforums.co m&youtube_video_id=ndCCcNVcYa4[/autostream] at about 1:36 into that video, that deep knocking sound, is exactly what would happen to my engine at about 3k rpm. It's been doing that ever since I can remember. Is that the early sound of a rod bearing going out?

 
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In the video, I can finally hear the noise when he starts revving it around 1:39. That's a trashed engine. One (or more) rod bearings are wiped out.

You bought the car with a horrible engine noise like in that video? Your fault.

No. That's the sound of "too EFFIN late". The only worse sounds are when the block suddenly becomes ventilated, or it suddenly gets really quiet and you coast to a stop.

 
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Well, I bought the car for $3000, 24,000 miles ago. Maybe that's why I got it for so cheap, ha. I'd say that even with an engine replacement, I'm still in the green though. It's just weird to me that it lasted that long if the bearing was already going out.

 
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Sounds like maybe the previous owner probably neglected it long enough to do the damage. (Probably ran it too low on oil at some point.)
It might have kept running for a long time with a small noise if it didn't ever see any excess.
You finished it off with abuse (prolonged high speed and heavy load).
You found the weakest link.



Yeah, put an engine in it, but do the necessary maintenances before it actually goes in.

You found an engine 5 hours away, so what?
Have the place ship the engine to you, or borrow a truck and go pick it up.
Shipping by truck is usually cheaper than your fuel and time.
Can't you find any closer to you? www.car-part.com
I don't trust anyone to touch my cars, but that's me.


Junkyard mechanics are great at getting the engine laying on the ground in record time......but maybe not so good at putting it back in though (comment is based on actually working with a couple of them in the past). There is a reason they work where they do. God help you if there is an electrical problem that can't be solved by swapping parts.
But if you are only looking for the cheapest price, you get what you deserve.
A moron can ruin a car in a heartbeat.

Have someone that YOU TRUST stuff the engine in.

 
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Yeah, the only problem is that the only people who've ever worked on my car besides myself are my family, and they have a **** ton of stuff going on all the time. $350 for the installation and then having my uncle look at it when it's done, or even watch while they do everything, is better than my uncle losing a day to day-and-a-half that he doesn't have, working on my car right after he's had wrist surgery, ha. Otherwise, I've never then the car to a mechanic in town, nor has anyone I know, and even if I did, I'd be willing to bet that they either wouldn't touch the car, or they'd charge 2 arms and 2 legs to do the install. If you Google Map Bishop, CA, you'll see what kind of situation I'm in, and the place I found, was on car-part.com. For example, I was quoted $375 to install an alternator at, as far as I can tell, the most reputable shop in town.

 
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Wow, looks like you are in the middle of a forest.



$350 to install an engine that probably is worth around 8-10 hours of labor is why I don't trust it.
Far too cheap for a business IMO. Something is going on there.

 
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yeah, I agree, but they said they'd be giving me a deal since I'm buying the engine there too. It seems like it could be too good to be true, or it could just be a fair price. I guess we'll just have to see. Either way I'll probably get the engine from this place, possibly take it somewhere else. I'll just see what my uncle thinks.

And not in the middle of the forest, per se, but definitely in the middle of the desert, in between two really tall mountain ranges, in the middle of nowhere, is more like it, haha

 
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My civic lx 5spd is around 5K RPM at 105. Auto EX has an even lower 4rth gear ratio, so it should be less than 5K for the OP.

How is 5K RPM dangerous for a d17? It should be able to take it just fine for several minutes with out crapping bearings. Now 6K rpm, I agree is a different story. I don't think these engines are that weak.

 
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It was in 3rd, you can't actually get it going that fast in 4th gear, only hold it there once you reach that point. I believe it was at about 6k, but really only for about 20 seconds max before we had to slow down because of a rough cattle guard.

So far, what I've learned from this experience: be nicer to your car. Also, I'm glad it happened now, rather than when I'm in college, four hours from the closest relative. Now, I'm 3 minutes from the closest one, so at least I have some support, and am still working.

 
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I would make sure a new timing belt, tensioner and, water pump went on the the new engine before it goes in.

 
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I was thinking the same thing. The shop said that stuff is all included in the price, as well as a new oil filter and fluids.

 
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Yeah, the old engine and the new used engine will both have
A timing belt,
A tensioner, and
A water pump
on each of them.
All used.

What about getting NEW parts?
FACTORY NEW PARTS?

Not aftermarket.
No "Made In China" cheapo crap from the Zone.
Not when the life of the engine (and all the valves) depends on it.

 
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That's true. Though they will be new, I'll see what I can do.

 
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Just looking through the pictures on my phone, thought I'd share pics from the last ride of my poor baby before that fateful hour, and right after I used a headlight restoration kit on it: